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Seventy Years a Teacher 



Sketch of the Life of 
Rev. Jonas Burnham, A. M. 



By ARTHUR W. PERKINS 



SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 



Sketch of the Life of 
Rev. Jonas Burnham, A. M. 



By Arthur W. Perkins 



Farmington, Maine 

The Knowlton & McLeary Co., Printers 

1920 






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SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 



A Remarkable Record of Service as Written up by a 
Local Historian 



WHILE looking at a volume of " Select Sermons " pub- 
lished at Andover, Mass., in 1819, I noticed that they 
were presented on that same year, by the second president of 
Bowdoin College, Jesse F. Appleton, to one just entering the 
Freshman class at that institution, who later was identified 
not only with the educational interests of Farmington and 
Franklin County for a period of forty years, but also well 
known as a religious teacher, as well as a pioneer in the anti- 
slavery and temperance causes, and had taught for a period of 
nearly thirty years before coming to Farmington. I refer to 
Reverend Jonas Burnham, A. M. I think that the subject of 
this brief sketch was born in Kennebunkport, Me., May 11, 
1708. He was the ninth and youngest child of Seth Burnham 
(born in 17(50) and was occupied at home or at school until 
sixteen years of age, when he became a cabin boy, during the 
war of 1812-14, on a privateer which captured a British vessel 
— his share of the bounty being ninety dollars. 

While there he was much impressed by the devotion of a 
certain British sailor to his Bible, his daily prayers and ob- 
servance of the Sabbath. On arrival home he sought his 
pastor, Rev. George Payson, by whose religious influence he 
became an active worker in the Congregational church of 
Kennebunkport and also decided to prepare for the ministry. 
In 1817, he went to Phillips Academy, .Vndover, Mass., re- 
maining there until 1810, fitting for Bowdoin College. 

During his collegiate course he taught in Thornton Acad- 
emy, Saco, Me., and in his native town. He also taught 
singing schools in the neighboring towns of Kennebunkport 



4 SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 

and Kennebunk, which were attended by a large number of 
pupils. 

He was a member of the Peucinian society while in 
college and was noted for scholarship and a ready gift for ex- 
pression, graduating from that institution in September, 1823, 
with such honor as to be one of the few admitted to the 
fraternity of Phi Betta Kappa. The trustees of Bath Acad- 
emy were present at the commencement exercises, and thev 
selected Mr. Burnham from the class of thirt)'-three members 
for principal of their academy, to which city he soon removed 
and remained there eight 3'ears. 

During his college course he had managed, by strict 
economy, to lay by nearly five hundred dollars, over and 
above his college expenses. (This story of college receipts 
exceeding that of expenditures was a very interesting one 
and, if written, would have equalled any novel in its varied 
experiences.) 

From Bath he went to Bridgton and w^as principal of that 
academy seven years (1832-1830). From Bridgton he went 
to Hallowell and was the first teacher of the High school there 
six years, afterward removing to Augusta, where he was the 
beloved preceptor of the Cony Female Academy two years. 
Prior to commencing his engagement in Augusta he served 
again as principal of Thornton Academy for two terms, where 
his popularity and success rendered his leaving a source of 
mutual regret. Mr. Burnham removed from Augusta to 
Farmington and became principal of Farmington Academy, 
August 27, 1849, filling the vacancy caused by the resigna- 
tion of Alexander Hamilton Abbott, A. M., who had assumed 
charge of " The Abbott Family School at Little Blue." 

A few days after Professor Burnham's arrival in Farm- 
ington, he wrote the following letter to his daughter, Miss 
Georgia P. Burnham, later the wife of the late John F. Woods, 
at that time away from home : 

" Well, here I am at the Stoddard House, in Farmington. 
the prettiest village I ever saw. Commenced school Monday, 
27th ult. Have had fifty-four pupils this week and this is 




REV. JONAS BURNHAM, A. M. 



6 SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 

enough, if they are permanent. Thus far I hke very much. 
Have made a favorable beginning and I hope for reasonable 
success. My pupils are still, studious and respectful — 
twenty young ladies and thirty-four young gentlemen. One 
is a man of 35 or 30, and there are boys of 10 years. The 
academy is a very good building; looks much like the acad- 
emy at Kennebunk. The school is in the upper room, a 
large hall fitted for the purpose. It will accommodate over 
one hundred. There is a good bell and some apparatus. Tui- 
tion $3.00 and $3.50, according to the studies. I wish you 
were here to help me, for I have to work without ceasing. 
Mary Deering is coming up Tuesday, and Sarah Wood is 
here from Winthrop. Have seen Mr. Cutler, Mr. Goodenow, 
General Ladd and lady, Hiram Belcher and lady, Samuel 
Belcher, Esq., Rev. Mr. Rogers and lady, and others. Mr. 
Reed lives here ; he plays the violin at the Congregational 
church. Miss Fanny Wentworth, (later Mrs. Reuben Cutler) 
a connection of his, is here giving lessons on the piano and 
organ. 

" The scenery all around is grand and beautiful. Lofty hills 
and extensive forests and cultivated fields can be seen in 
every direction and the beautiful Sandy river, with its rich 
intervales, adds greatly to the interest of the landscape. The 
village is twice as large as I supposed and the buildings are all 
neat and handsome. Mr. Rogers (Rev. Isaac Rogers) is a 
very faithful and excellent preacher." 

The late Hon. Francis Gould Butler, in his " History of 
Farmington," refers to Professor Burnham's success at the 
academy, in these words : 

" During Mr. Burnham's preceptorship, from August 27, 
184t), to July 15, 1851), the number of terms was twenty, the 
total number of scholars two thousand five hundred and 
twenty-four, with an average of one hundred and twenty-six 
to a term; and fifty students were fitted for college." 

After leaving the academy he was appointed by the 
Congregational State Conference as stated supply for the 
churches in Strong, Wilton, Farmington Falls and New 



SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 7 

Sharon, which position he acceptably filled until 1874. He 
also taught Greek and Latin at the " Wendell Institute " 
(named for Abraham Wendell, a brother of the late Mrs. F. G. 
Butler) during the seventies. This was a private school kept 
by Miss Julia H. May (" Poet Laureate " of Maine) and Miss 
Sara R. May ("Mother Superior" of Christian Endeavor), 
accomplished graduates of Mount Holyoke Seminary. In- 
struction in drawing, painting and penmanship was given by 
Mrs. J. M. D. Houghton, Mrs. George B. Cragin (nee Miss 
Abby Belcher) and Mrs. Florence G. Varney (nee Miss 
Florence Goodrich of Windham, Me. ) . Elocution was taught 
by Professor J. M. Chapman, for so many years an instructor 
at the New Hampton, N. H., Literary Institution. 

A system of chronology or mnemonics was invented by 
Professor Burnham by means of which the date of any event 
might be retained in one's memory and was a very valual)le ac- 
quisition to one liable to forget dates of important events. In 
his teaching of the English branches, he arranged them in a 
very attractive metrical form, so that they might be sung or re- 
cited as in poetry. Especially was this true regarding the rules 
of grammar and arithmetic, with their arbitrary rules, and also 
the geographical names of countries, mountains, rivers, lakes, 
islands, etc., for what is geography to any schoolboy but an 
array of jaw-breaking names? Although the rivers in Scot- 
land and England ending in 

" Clyde, Forth and Tay, 
Tweed, Dee and Spey, 
Thames, Severn, Mersey, 
Humber, Ouse and Trent," 

were not so very hard to pronounce, when the scholars reached 
the mountains and lakes in South America and the countries 
in Africa closing with 

" Bambarra, Tinibuctoo, 
Yarida, Houssa and Bornoii, 
Begharme, Darfur and Begoo," 

great emphasis was placed u[)on the last named country similar 
to a " college yell," showing the exhilaration produced upon 



8 SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 

the completion of the task by the students reciting in concert. 
I think that Professor Burnham would derive the largest num- 
ber of English words from Greek and Latin " roots and 
stems " of any person I ever met. It never seemed to make 
any difference what word from the Latin or Greek he selected, 
for he always derived a long list of English words arranged 
in the form of an interesting story. 

As an illustration, let us take the Latin verb stare (to 
remain) and from the stem, sta-, the students attention would 
be called to " a distant sta-te, where they were to visit a 
sta-tesman, who owned a large sta-ble, with many sta-lls, in 
which were a number of sta-llions hitched to sta-nchions, 
when they were not being exercised in the sta-dium or driven 
to the railway sta-tion, where they would be obliged to sta-nd 
until a sta-ted time, when the train would arrive, bringing 
two guests, one a sta-tistician, with a wallet full of sta-ters to 
be distributed among the sta-te mongers, attending his lecture 
on sta-tocracy and sta-tistology, and the other a man, tall in 
sta-ture, who had recently published a sta-ndard work on 
sta-tical electricity and magnetism." 

By using this unique method of deriving English words. 
Professor Burnham would impress the student with the prac- 
tical value of the Latin and Greek languages, against the 
study of which so much has been written and said by many of 
our prominent educators at the present day. 

I recall an incident in connection with the derivation of 
words, when a member of a class, consisting of a few students, 
including the late William Holley Cothren, who later gradu- 
ated from Bowdoin College with high honors ; Frederick G. 
Chutter, now a Congregational clergyman, and Everett B. 
Norton, Esq., who has traveled so many thousand miles in 
the employ of " Uncle Sam," and is now laying out R. F. D. 
routes " in the land of the Dacotas." We were assigned the 
task of deriving as many words as possible from a single 
Latin " root or stem " in connection with our regular recita- 
tions in Latin and Greek. On the following morning " Fred," 
" Everett " and myself passed in our list of words, when 



SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 9 

" Will " took from his pocket a large sheet of brown wrapping 
paper completely filled with words. I shall never forget the 
look of exultation and satisfaction which crossed his fine in- 
tellectual countenance as he took his seat. 

The Greek verb, so difficult for many students to remem- 
ber in their preparation for college, was made comparatively 
easy under his instruction. At a reunion of the Alumni and 
Alumna} of the " May School " in 1900, Miss Julia Harris 
May alluded to Professor Burnham in the following verse : 

" Nor could we, ought we, to forget that dear old Father Burnham, 
Who taught the Greek verbs once so well, we did not have to learn 'em. 
His memory lingers in our hearts, and still forever lingers. 
Though Homer's Iliad, somehow, has slipped between our fingers ; 
We seem to see him studying yet. 
What we remember and forget." 

Not only did Professor Burnham teach " the Greek verbs 
so well we did not have to learn 'em " but those who were 
under his tuition in Greek and Latin became acquainted with 
very many Greek and Latin authors, whereas under the ordi- 
nary preparation for college, one reads very few authors 
comparatively. 

In addition to the reading of C?esar, Cicero and Virgil, 
the students were introduced to selections from Latin histori- 
ans, Eutropius, Justin and Cornelius Nepos, together with the 
poets, Ovid and Horace. Preparatory to the reading of 
Xenophon and Homer, the students were urged to read 
extracts from .^sop's Fables, Jests of Hierocles and Strabo's 
" Work on Geography," which was not a mere register of 
names and places, but a rich store of interesting facts and of 
great utility in the study of ancient literature and art, also 
" Anecdotes of Philosophers " by Zeno, Aristotle, Plato, 
Socrates and others. In history and biography might be men- 
tioned " Plutarch's Lives " of celebrated historians, states- 
men and orators of ancient Greece. Nor should we forget 
the " Lyric Poets," Sappho and Anacreon, and the Idyls of 
Bion and Moscus, furnishing a college preparatory course in 
Latin and Greek of great variety and interest. 



10 SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 

Professor Burnham possessed a memory the most mar- 
velous, which had been strengthened in a measure by a rule he 
made when young, to commit each evening Ijefore retiring, a 
whole chapter from the Biljle. He took a deep and lasting 
interest in the young and always encouraged his students to 
secure a classical education at any cost. 

During the declining }-ears of his life, he occupied his 
time fitting young men for ccjllege, man}- of wliom owe their 
success in college and after life to the fatherly interest mani- 
fested by the faithful teacher. Even the Tuesday preceding 
the day of his death, Mr. Burnham listened to a recitation 
from one of his students : ( Fred C. Nottage, a graduate of 
our State Normal School, class of 188?'; advanced course, 
1889). Mr. Burnham was ever a consistent member of the 
Congregational church, and actively labored in every good 
work to advance the cause of Christianity. He was present 
at the dedicatory services of the " New Old South church " 
held on the fifth day of June, 1888, and pronounced the bene- 
diction, being then ninety years of age. 

Mr. Burnham was twice married. In September, 1823, 
he married Miss Jane Merrill of Kennebunkport and after 
almost half a century of happy wedded life she died in April, 
187'2. Three children were born to them, one of whom is now 
living, Mrs. John F. Woods. In 1873 Air. Burnham married 
his second wife, Miss Mary L. Wells of Chesterville, by whom 
he had one child, Mary Sophrene, (born in 1878 when Pro- 
fessor Burnham was eighty years of age) now living and who 
was graduated from Leland Stanford University, California, 
with honors. 

As one, who had the rare privilege, when a youth in my 
'teens, of reciting to Professor Burnham in Greek and Latin, 
and of listening to those incomparable lectures upon all sub- 
jects, which any student in college would be deeply interested 
in, I would bear sincere and reverent testimony to the personal 
worth and influence of that prince of teachers. In affection 
and love I would speak of him as my instructor and my friend 
and gladly avail myself of this opportunity to bear witness 



SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 11 

that his treatment was not only kind, encouraging and im- 
partial, but that his instructions were eagerly assimilated by 
those under his tuition. 

Not only was he faithful to all under his instruction, but 
he was a friend, kind and true. 

Thousands will bear witness to his worth, including many 
who now hold or have held positions in the national govern- 
ment — such as Chief Justice Fuller, the Washburnes, and 
many others. He lived tg the advanced age of nearly ninety- 
one (having died March 9, 1889), loved and honored by all 
who knew him, and whoever might have the pleasure of con- 
versing with him would have said that surely he was one of 
the grandest Christian patriarchs of modern times. I recall 
but two academic careers in this state that approach that of 
Professor Burnham in duration (a period of nearly seventy 
years from the time of his admission to Bowdoin College, 
until the time of his death, for he taught a great deal during 
his college course), October 1, 1819-March 9, 1889 — that of 
Alexander Hamilton Abbott, A. M., who taught during the 
forties at the Farmington Academy and was proprietor of 
" The Abbott Family School at Little Blue " for nearly fifty 
years (1849-1899), made a total of nearly sixty years; and 
that of Rev. A. S. Packard, D. D., who was an officer of 
Bowdoin College in uninterrupted service for a period of 
sixty-five years, and under whose presidency we Farmington 
boys were enrolled as pupils at Bowdoin twenty-two years ago 
and to whom the great poet, Longfellow, in his famous " Mori- 
turi Salutamus," delivered upon the occasion of the fiftieth 
anniversary of his class eight years before (when Professor 
Purington, principal of our Normal school, was a student at 
Bowdoin College) referring to the teachers of his college days, 
turned and said : 

" They are no longer here, they all are gone 
Into the land of shadows — all save one — 
Honor and reverence and the good repute 
That follows faithful service as its fruit, 
Be unto him, whom living we salute." 



12 SEVENTY YEARS A TEACHER 

After the death of Professor Packard, which occurred 
while I was a student at " Bowdoin," there appeared in the 
Bowdoin Orient of October, 1884, (a weekly paper published 
by the students of that institution) a beautiful sonnet written 
by Edward Clarence Plummer of our class (now a lawyer of 
Bath) and being one of the most eloquent of the many tributes 
ever paid the memory of Professor Packard, I think it very 
applicable to our Professor Burnham : 

" Like to the anthem of a master mind 
Made vocal through the organ's metal throats, 
Where sweetly winning and strong-sounding notes 
Are all in perfect harmony combined ; 
And seem a wave of beauty undefined 
Which sinking into silence leaves the heart 
Of him who listens moved in every part 
With strange emotions which it leaves behind ; 
And lingers like an echo in the breast 
When long the notes have ceased to breathe in sound ; 
A sense of something beautiful and best, 
Like unseen incense breathing all around, 
Was the pure life which went away to rest 
With days completed and with labors crowned." 

ARTHUR W. PERKINS. 



m^.^.f^.^^ Of" CONGRESS 



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